Browse Dissertations and Theses - Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology by Title

Damage caused by herbivores is a potentially strong selective agent of plant phenotypes, including selecting for many defensive traits, though not all plant-herbivore interactions are strictly negative for the plants. ...

The aim of the research included in this dissertation is to contribute to our understanding of how consistent individual differences in behavior, so called animal personality, influences differences in how individuals ...

Grasslands cover a significant portion of the Earth’s terrestrial surface, yet we know little about the historical biogeography of grassland-restricted lineages. Previous work on the biogeography of grassland taxa has ...

All animals, including primates, face the challenge of obtaining sufficient energy and nutrients despite 1) variation in food availability across habitats and seasons and 2) temporal fluctuations in nutritional requirements ...

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) colonies divide foraging activities between scouts, who search for new sources of food, and non-scouts, who rely on information from waggle dances to find food sources. Molecular analyses of ...

The role of competition in free-living populations of tree squirrels was evaluated by manipulating female fox squirrel numbers and monitoring the response of gray squirrels. Supplemental feeding with native mast was used ...

Metapopulation biology has been integral for understanding the impact of spatial habitat structure on ecological and evolutionary processes. In fragmented landscapes, theory predicts that species occupancy and turnover ...

Mutualisms, or mutually beneficial species interactions (+/+), play a key role in ecological community functioning, influencing community stability and biological diversity. Despite their importance in ecological processes, ...

During their embryogenesis, marsupials develop a unique structure, the shoulder arch, which provides the structural and muscle-attachment support necessary for the newborn’s crawl to the teat. One of the most pronounced ...

A recent focus on contemporary evolution and the connections between
communities has sought to more closely integrate the fields of ecology and evolutionary
biology. Studies of coevolutionary dynamics, life history ...

East-central Illinois is devoted primarily to agriculture and remaining tracts of forest serve as valuable habitat islands for a variety of species. Preservation of many species is dependent on large blocks of forest. Bird ...

Microtine rodent (lemmings and voles) populations often undergo seasonal or multi-annual fluctuations in density. Although a number of single factors have been proposed as the causal agent of these fluctuations, no one has ...

The role of niche assembly processes in shaping ecological communities is a subject of great interest to ecologists, especially in species rich communities such as tropical forests, as niche processes may play an important ...

No previous study has separated the effects of several types of herbivorous mammals on mid-western grassland communities at different stages of development, in spite of a substantial literature indicating the potential of ...

Field experiments were conducted during two summers (1980 and 1981) in Dynamite Lake, Illinois, to determine the roles of planktivorous fish and nutrients in regulating the dynamics of the plankton community. Dynamite Lake ...

The effects of agricultural land use on headwater stream ecosystems were assessed. Three factors were examined: (1) the role of physical and biological processes in terrestrial, riparian, and aquatic portions of agricultural ...